The Scorpion King
Tagline: Warrior. Legend. King. The Scorpion King is a 2002-action-adventure film produced by Universal Pictures, and is a prequel spin-off to the studios’ remake Mummy trilogy. The movie starred Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in his first-ever lead starring role as the warrior himself, Mathayus, and with a supporting cast by Michael Clarke Duncan, Kelly Hu, Steven Brand, Ralf Moeller, and Grant Heslov. The film was a box-office hit like the films it predates (chronologically) but was a much, much smaller success than the Mummy films. Both critical and fan reaction was primarily negative or very mixed, but the film is still important as being The Rock’s breakthrough movie role. Plot: Write here. Overview: The Scorpion King is a prequel to the Universal films The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and the upcoming The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The character of Mathayus was first introduced as a peripheral character in The Mummy Returns, and after the (financial) success of Returns, helped in part by the extensive hype surrounding The Rock’s appearance, a new spin-off was announced by Universal and Stephen Sommers. The film was directed by Chuck Russell of The Mask and Eraser fame, while Sommers acted as co-writer and producer. The film is supposedly set in Ancient Egyptian times predating all the known empires of the world, roughly around 3,000 BC. However, the movie is plagued with numerous historical errors and contradictory facts, such as having the characters speak in 21st Century-English style (although this can be justified as a modernized ‘translation’ of the Ancient Egyptian dialogue). Such quotes as “We have killed Babylonians, Mesopotamians, Assyrians, Myceneans, etc.” and “How romantic!” directly contradict historical timelines. Reception: Critics: Critical reactions were extremely negative or, at best, mediocre. Critic Roger Ebert, who enjoyed The Mummy but was disappointed by The Mummy Returns, criticized the film for it’s silly, derivative tone. However, he admitted to actually enjoying the movie’s over-the-top style and Dwayne Johnson’s charismatic screen charm, stating his firm support for Johnson eventually becoming an action star ala Arnold Schwarzenneger. The movie currently has a “rotten” rating on the Internet web-site Rotten Tomatoes.com. Audiences: Unfortunately, the fan reaction didn’t exactly help the film’s reputation, with audiences unfavorably comparing it to Conan the Barbarian, and generally thought of The Scorpion King as a low-quality B movie. Despite this, the film did do fine business at the box-office, but never held a candle to the mega-blockbuster Mummy saga. Legacy: A prequel titled The Scorpion King: Rise of the Akkadian is now in pre-production, and will star Michael Chabon as a young Mathayus. This film was Dwayne Johnson’s breakthrough role, and enabled him to go on and star in numerous other popular movies including Be Cool, The Rundown and Doom (film). However, Doom was given poor reviews by critics, not necessarily because of Johnson. Trivia: * Both real and computer-generated scorpions were used in this film. * This film is a spin-off prequel of a sequel of a film that was a remake of another film that was made 75 years ago. * There is a small moment in the movie where Dwayne Johnson makes "The People's Eyebrow," his wrestling trademark, in response to another character's reference to a harem. * The sorceress's name, Cassandra, is a reference to the daughter of Priam, king of Troy, who was given the gift to see the future by the Greek god Apollo. He gave her the gift with the hopes that she would become his lover, however, when she refused to bed with him, he placed a curse on her, condemning her to never be believed when she gave a prophecy. * Indiana Jones uses a rolling gong as a shield in the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In this movie, at one point The Rock does the very same thing. * The cave that the Rock and the bandits come out of is the bat cave from the 1966 Batman film. * The role of villain Memnon was originally written for Chow Yun-Fat. But Chow's manager stated that Chow never plays villains. However, Chow would go on years later to star in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End as Sao Feng, a Pirate Lord. This character was more of an anti-hero than a straight villain, though.